1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for providing communication services, comprising a communication network with a number of exchanges and a number of connection points, each connection point being connected by a fixed line to an exchange and being adapted to connect at least one communication terminal to the corresponding exchange, wherein first connection points of said number of connection points are in an operative state and second connection points of said number of connection points are in an inoperative state, wherein operative connection points allow a communication terminal connected thereto access to at least one communication service through said system by having been assigned a unique address from a first group of unique addresses to each of the operative connection points.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of such a system is a fixed line telephone network, wherein telephone terminals connected to the first connection points allow subscribers to call other subscribers connected through first connection points to the same telephone network or to other telephone networks interconnected to the first telephone network.
In order to switch a second connection point from the inoperative to the operative state, the operator of the telephone network has to determine through his network administrative system which of the large number of fixed lines connected to the corresponding exchange is connected to the second connection point to be switched to the operative state. This operation is complex and time consuming. Moreover, in particular at locations with a large number of connection points this operation easily leads to errors in the selection of the fixed line of the connection point to be switched into the operative state.